Tomato Pie

Tomato Pie, Who would have thought, lol
Still laffing at the idea of green tomato juice...





Ingredients


1- 9" pie crust brushed with a little milk and baked


6 plum tomatoes sliced


a pinch or so of sugar


1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (sharp)


1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese shredded


small handful of shredded basil


3/4 cups of Miracle Whip


2 cloves of garlic minced very fine


salt and pepper to taste



Directions



After pre-baking the pie crust allow it to cool. Mix the cheeses, spices, garlic and Miracle Whip together. Place half of the tomatoes into the pie shell, sprinkle with a bit of sugar and then layer half of the cheese mixture over the tomatoes. Repeat with another layer using the rest of the ingredients.


Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. After removing from the oven allow the pie to rest for about 10 minutes to set. This pie can be eaten hot or cold.
Enjoy.
You know me and kicking it up a notch. If you want something with a little spice, throw some sliced pepperoni onto the first layer of the cheese mixture. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Ironic Chef 3 Tomato Sunday

I thought it would be interesting to use the tomato this week as the themed ingredient just because I am having every ones ripe tomatoes rubbed in my face for teasing purposes, lol. Mine are still a few weeks away but at least when they are ripe they will be beef steaks. One slice will make a sandwich for you.

I hear some out there not having much luck with any good tomato recipes so I hope that they keep checking what everyone post for some good ideas. I posted several on The Garden Circle groups page as did Suzi. I hope you take a look to see what is there and enjoy the ideas.

I know that stuffed peppers and cabbages always go over very well and if one doesn't eat the pepper or cabbage they will most likely go for the filling.

I love stuffed tomatoes so I figured I would share a simple recipe for some. There are so many different stuffing recipes like rice, risotto, veal and such but I just figured I'd go light for a change.

I take 4 large beef steak tomatoes and cut the tops off of them and then remove the centers. Just like you would a pepper. For the filling I mix together 2 cups of bread crumbs,1/4 cup of Good Seasons Italian dressing that has been mixed, a small handful of chopped basil, 1/2 lb of mozzarella cheese that has been shredded and 1 egg for a binder and salt and pepper to taste. All of these ingredients are mixed together and used to fill the tomatoes. I usually place a small amount of the mozzarella cheese on the tops of the stuffed tomatoes. The tomatoes go into a hot oven, about 425 degrees and baked until the cheese on top is a nice golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. I then remove them from the oven and allow them to sit for about 10 minutes so that the filling sets and cools some. Eating them right out of the oven is like putting hot lava into your mouth. These stuffed tomatoes are very light and kind of remind me of eating a pizza inside out. They are very refreshing on a hot day and are very simple to make.

Enjoy

Asian Tiger Mosquito

I went out to the garden this morning to get some bean picking out of the way with. I could not believe the number of Mosquitoes attacking me and vicious Mosquitoes at that. My bush beans are very leafy and were loaded with beans. I would lift a plant off the ground to remove the beans and was shocked to see the mosquitoes fly up from under the plants. I thought it rather odd being attacked in the heat of the morning in full sun and noticed the black and white color on these blood suckers. I didn't recognize this mosquito and didn't understand why they were under the plants. I always thought that mosquitoes loved stagnant water.




So here I sit with about 50 bites on my legs and feet doing some research and have found that this breed of mosquito is the Asian Tiger Mosquito. These suckers attack during the day time and do not need pools of water to survive. I have also learned that the spraying that is done to control the mosquito population and the West Nile Virus is done at night. Night time spraying only controls the night feeders. Seems the only way to control these Asian Tiger Mosquitoes is to go around and spray vegetable oil on any damp areas . The oil will suffocate the larvae.


I thought it odd that Wikapedia claims that this Asian Tiger Mosquito is the Mosquito known to carry the West Nile Virus and the eastern equine encephalitis, a virus disease of wild birds that occasionally affects horses and humans in the southern half of New Jersey. . I wonder why we have all the States using the pretense of controlling these viruses by spraying for mosquitoes. By Federal law it is against the law to spray during day light hours due to the fact that the sprays could harm honey bees and pollination.

I do some container type gardening and have noticed that in buckets that have big leafy plants such as Horse Radish, these mosquitoes love it under these plants too.
I have used vegetable oil as a spray to control bugs on the leafs of plants but have never used it on the ground or in the containers.
I'm hoping to learn what others do to combat these suckers seeing as how they have worked their way up to here from Texas. I am thinking you Southerners have been fighting them for years and have some tips.

Ironic Chef 2 Chocolate Sunday

The Ironic Chef Chocolate Theme Weekend

Last weeks Recipe Challenge with Beans went rather well but for this weeks theme Chocolate was suggested and I being one that could never pass up on chocolate, "let's do it"..

Let's see those Recipes were Chocolate is the main ingredient.

Im going to start off with a recipe handed to me by Vero, "wow", a couple of years ago. It's called a Butter Finger Cake. This cake is so full of moisture that it may run off the fork if you don't eat it fast enough and you want to talk about rich? Lol... This is not a cake for someone trying to control the intake of carbs by any means.

The Butterfinger Cake

Ingredients

1 German chocolate cake mix

1 can of sweet condensed milk

1 bottle of caramel topping

1 bag of fun sized Butterfingers

1 tub of Cool Whip Topping

Directions-

Freeze the Butterfinger bars. Make the cake according to the directions that came with the cake, use 2 - 9" pans for baking. When the cakes come out of the oven remove from pans. Poke holes in the tops with a wooden spoon and pour the condensed milk over the cakes, then over both cakes with the caramel, then let the cakes cool. Unwrap the Butterfinger bars and place in a Ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin; beat the hech outta them and crush them up good, freezing the Butterfingers first makes this step easier. After the cakes have cooled cover the one that you want for the bottom with whipped cream, then sprinkle with the Butterfinger crumbs. Place the other cake on top and cover the entire cake with the whipped cream. Sprinkle as much of the Butterfinger crumbs as possible over and around the rest of the cake and the squeeze caramel over the cake in a decorative fashion. Refrigerate the cake for at least 8 hours. Get ready to fight the children and grandchildren away. After they get the sugar rush from this cake you may need reinforcements.

To Hot And Overheating

Last Friday the Temperatures here were up in the upper 90's. My trucks thermometer read 107 at lunch time. On my drive to work I was probably about 20 minutes from my job site when I dash board warning light brought me out of my mindless zone that I get into when I commute and wondering why I saw a warning light flashing took my eyes to the temperature gauge to see that I was over heating.

I just happend to be coming up on a Walmart so I pulled off the high way and found a spot in the parking lot very far from the store itself and popped the hood. At 5:30 in the morningf I was suprised to see how many cars there was as it is in the parking lot. (No sign of Elvis or his custumized Pinto though)Being the Boy Scout I am and always trying to be prepared I grabbed 1 of the 7 or 8 1 gallon jugs of water that I always seem to be carrying with me and after it was safe to take the radiator cap off I started pouring in the water. 1 gallon didn't seem enough so I went for #2. Not enough, what the heck. I stuck my head under the front of the truck and started cussing up a storm as I watched the water pour out from somewheres.

I managed to make it to the job site with several stops to add more water. After the work day was done I filled up all my jugs and headed home. Lol, I managed to get about 8 miles to the gallon of water. There is nothing like driving home from work after a long hot day with the engine overheating and you have the heater on high trying tpo keep the engine just a little cooler. So....... last weekend I spent much of my time working on my wife's car and trying to resolve my cooling system problem.

I live by K&W block, head and engine seal so I flushed the system, added the sealer and then allowed the system to dry. I also picked up another thermostat and ended up going to 3 different suppliers for the 2 gaskets needed for the thermostat and housing. Sunday night I had everything good to go. My truck was running great. No leaking. I let it idle for almost 2 hours and the temperature never went over 195 on the gauge. I figured I had done good.

Monday morning I took my wife's car to work and I asked her to use my truck for the day. I figured that if she ran the truck locally to go to the store or whatever would be a good test for it. Needless to say that didn't happen. She didn't need to go anywheres all day.

I took my truck to work Tuesday.l The drive in was nice with absolutely no problems. THE DRIVE HOME ON THE OTHER HAND, GGGRRRRRRR.

Last night I was fuming as I tore apart the front of my truck and pulling the dang water pump out. There was a gasket shot on one side of the water pump and the sucker and me had it out. I ended up putting in another water pump since I was pulling the old one out anyways. So I would say that my day yesterday ended at about 9:30pm. I was dragging today.

The good out of it is that the overheating problem seems to be fixed but I am still shell shocked. I keep expecting that arrow on the gauge to just keep going up and up. Lol, I had 10 gallon jugs in the back of the truck this morning just in case....

Holy Moses

Recently, while going through an airport during one of his many trips,
President Bush encountered a man with long gray hair and beard, wearing a
white robe and sandals, holding a staff. President Bush went up to the man
and said, "Has anyone told you that you look like Moses?" The man didn't
answer. He just kept staring straight ahead.
The president said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just stared ahead,
never acknowledging the president.

The president pulled a Secret Service agent aside and, pointing to the robed
man, asked him, "Am I crazy or does that man not look like Moses to you?
The Secret Service agent looked at the man and agreed.

"Well," said the president, "every time I say his name, he ignores me and
stares straight ahead, refusing to speak. Watch!" Again the president
yelled, "Moses!" and again the man ignored him.

The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered,
"You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?"

The man leaned over and whispered back, "Shhhh! Yes, I am Moses. The last
time I talked to a bush, I spent 40 years wandering in the desert and ended
up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East with no
oil."

Ironic Chef 360 1st Weekend

Ironic Chef 360 Weekend

The hard part for an Iron Chef 360 was to come up with a Main Ingredient. Hmmmmmmm. der brain ist smoking and the hollow space in there isn't all that hollow, lol. I'm picking Green Beans and Waxed Beans from the garden this weekend. First of the year picking, so.......

The Theme for Our First Ironic Chef 360 for those interested in participating this weekend is to come up with your favorite Green or Waxed Bean Recipes and post them. This is all for fun and to give everyone around 360 Land the opportunity to see the different styles of cooking from one area to another. Please remember that the recipes main ingredient has to be either Green beans or Waxed beans.

I for one will be interested in seeing what craziness can come from them there beans.

Oh yeah, a poem for the bean, not green beans though;

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So let's eat beans for every meal!

There are many other versions of this poem but I figured we would keep it clean and less offensive to people that don't appreciate a toot.

Lunch

I notice a few blogs out there going around with a lunch tray and postings of what some have for lunch on the tray. Interesting to see the PB&J and the Oreos or the Dim Sum.or the "Mac & Cheese, lol.

I have had the same lunch for so long every day of work for so many years now winter or summer. I guess it ties into other blogs with Iced Teas. I usually freeze a 1 liter coke bottle of iced tea every night and that is my lunch for the following day. I would like it to be homemade but I am to lazy to go that route at night every day. I am not a big fan of high fructose corn syrup but for some reason it seems to be in everything today. Even in the big cans of either Lipton or 4 C iced tea mix that we buy. I'll have to rethink making the homemade sweet tea.

I drink so much iced tea that I have had to suffer with kidney stones which before I had them never knew that iced tea could be a contributing factor for them developing. But know I did not break the habit of stopping drinking it. Well, if you made it this far I will share the chicken recipe for the chicken I made for dinner.

Don't you southerners get mad now cause this is really cheating when it comes to cheating making fried chicken.


I took three boneless and skinless chicken breast halves and filleted them one more time for thinner cutlets and the ponded them out. Dredged these now six pieces of chicken breast in seasoned flour. Salt, pepper and Bells poultry seasoning.

I took about 3 cups of Corn Flakes and ground them up in the food processor. I didn't grind them up to fine, maybe one step courser than bread crumbs. I then seasoned the corn flakes with the same seasonings as the flour.

I dipped the floured chicken cutlets into an egg wash and then into the cornflakes coating them very well. I then placed the cutlets onto a baking sheet that I sprayed with vegetable oil spray .

I then lightly sprayed the tops of the cutlets with a little more spray. I baked the cutlets in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. These chicken cutlets turn out very moist and crispy.

I figure for an easy an quick meal it's not to bad to whip some of this chicken up.

Banananana Pancakes Kicked up a Notch

What Mac's Been Cooking, I'm throwing this recipe out again just in case anyone wants to stop bye for breakfast. It has been kicked up a notch.

Mac’s Ultimate Pancakes

Ingredients

1-½ cups of unbleached white flour

1-1/2 tsp of baking powder

3 tbls of brown sugar

½ tsp of baking soda

½ tsp of salt

3 mashed ripe banana

½ cup of crushed walnuts

1-1/2 cups of milk with 2 teaspoon of lemon juice

2 tbls of melted butter

2 eggs separated

1 tsp of vanilla

1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips and a big whacker to whack little thieving hands with.

Directions

In a mixing bowl add all of the dry ingredients and mix very well.

Heat what ever you are going to use to cook your pancakes to a medium high heat. A griddle works great but if you use a skillet you can use more butter for the actual cooking of the pancakes for a better texture. Think of all the extra calories, lol.

Add the 2 egg whites to a bowl and with a mixer beat to stiff peaks.

In a large measuring cup add first the milk and the lemon juice and mix well. Allow to sit for a few minutes and you will have buttermilk. Add the 2 egg yolks and mix well.

Add the Buttermilk and egg mixture to the dry ingredients and then add the melted butter, mashed banana, vanilla and mix well. After the mixture is smooth fold in the egg whites. This is my secret step for making the most ultimate light and airy pancakes ever.

Spray your skillet or griddle with cooking spray or use a pat of butter. Pour ¼ cup of batter for each 6” pancake. As the bottom starts to cook, sprinkle chips over the surface. As the outside sets and the top gets good and bubbly flip the pancakes. These pancakes are very airy due to the egg whites and will really rise. Allow them to finish cooking for about another 30 seconds and serve with a pat of butter and the syrup of your choice.

I like to make a pancake that I call a log cabin style pancake. I do not know if anyone has ever heard of this method but I would like to share it with you if you haven’t. When I pour pancake batter into a skillet or onto the griddle I like to pour it rather slow. The batter stream is in the middle and slowly works its way outward. This method actually forms rings on the surface of the pancake that is cooking like the rings you would see on a log or stump. This method of pancake making is greatly appreciated on camping trips and when doing outdoor cooking.

This recipe will make 12- 6” pancakes.

Note:These pancakes will surely need a side of bacon.

Entry for July 04, 2007 I decided to make a cake today

I decided to make a cake today. See video, lol. HAPPY 4TH everyone.

Geeeeesh. A friend posted a video of the Muppets and clicking it brought back memories of cracking people up with my Swedish Chef Impressions. I lost it in laughter seeing these old videos so I guess I will be sharing them with future blogs. Lol. And yes, Myself and the Swedish Chef share a resemblance to one another.